Early on Wednesday morning, Google’s filetype search operator vanished from sight. There are still other search operators in operation. In response, SearchLiaison says there has to be a bug. The addition of the “filetype” search operator, which allows users to filter search results based on particular file formats, has been formally verified by Google. With this update, Google’s search feature should become even more efficient in identifying requested material throughout the web.
Filetype Search Operator
One approach to limit your search results to only include text, PDF, and.doc files, among many other file types, is to use the filetype: search operator.
It appears that viewing the cache and doing a file-type search on Google have been disabled. In particular, the former will be lost, which will make it much more difficult to find papers such as policy.
It was functional on Tuesday night because I used it, so it must have been fixed later. However, it appears to have disappeared in the US a few hours later.
However, SearchLiaison responded via tweet early on Wednesday morning (Eastern Time), stating that it had to be a bug.
How To Make Filetype Operator Work
There is a way to restore the Filetype Search Operators if it hasn’t been restored by later on Wednesday.
That tweet was right; you can make the filetype: search operator work again by combining it with another search operator, such as the site: search operators.
An image of a search for a Microsoft Word document in the.doc file type that was limited to the.gov top level domain (TLD) can be found below.
The Filetype Search Bug Is Spreading?
A few hours ago, there were reports of people from all over the world tweeting about the filetype: search issue. How serious this bug is and how long it lasts are still unknown.
